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RYAN WOLSTAT, QMI AGENCY

Apr 6, 2014

, Last Updated: 11:54 PM ET

Has an NCAA championship game’s participants ever been as unexpected as this year’s pairing?

Sure, Butler was a huge surprise in recent years, but Monday’s adversaries, Kentucky and UConn weren’t supposed to be here. And, yes, Kentucky was the pre-season No. 1 going into the year because of its stellar freshman class, but the team was a huge disappointment and — whether it was four weeks or four months ago, nobody was thinking the Wildcats would be in this position.

And no one saw Connecticut playing for it all just a year after being banned from the tournament, with no potential first-round NBA draft picks on its roster.

But here we are, getting ready to crown a champion and it will be one of these squads, the highest combined seeds ever to make it to the final Monday.